Mattel

If you're of a certain age, then you might have fond memories of the View-Master. Pop in a disc, hold the device up to your face, and enjoy some 3D images of, say, the latest Muppets movie or climactic scenes from Chips or The Dukes of Hazzard. Today Mattel and Google announced an update that tries to merge the classic device with modern virtual reality. Read More

Darth Vader might traverse distant galaxies in a Tie Fighter, but what about when he’s in California? Mattel’s answer: a Darth Vader car. Appearing at Comic Con this week, the one-off is part of a release event for a new line of Star Wars-inspired Hot Wheels cars. Read More

Admit it. No matter what age you were when you first saw the hover board in Back to the Future 2, odds are that you wanted one. Too bad we're a scant three years away from the time when the movie takes place and the hover industry hasn't exactly taken off. Mattel is planning the next best thing though: a full-sized replica of the famous pink hover board. Read More

Around the same time we reported that Nickelodeon was teaming up with Mattel to produce an older, “tweenage” version of the Dora the Explorer, an explosion of outrage erupted from parents concerned by the teaser silhouette which had many thinking Dora was to become a “sexed up” version of her former self. They need not have worried, as the recently unveiled “Dora Links” doll recreates the much loved kids icon as an “age appropriate” interactive doll that connects to a computer via USB and offers an educational and fun experience both on and offline. Read More

Toy-maker Mattel is releasing a range of action figures that incorporate augmented reality technology, based on characters from the Avatar movie hitting our screens around Christmas. The toys, to be launched in October, ‘come alive’ on your home computer when scanned on a webcam. Each action figure in the range has a unique 3-D web tag (i-TAG) which, when scanned, reveals special content onscreen. The animated 3-D models will show off “engaging, evading or defending moves”, says Mattel. And when two i-TAGs from the same Battle Pack are scanned together, the 3-D characters will interact on-screen. Read More